Double Take

One of my favorite atheist authors, and the one whose work played a key role in my deconversion, happened to find my story recently. I’m not sure how, but it was pretty cool.

For those who haven’t ready through my (overlong) bio, John W. Loftus’ book, Why I Became an Atheist, was instrumental in understanding my own doubts, and in understanding why the arguments of Christian Apologists were not making sense to me, why they were not satisfying my doubts.

His blog, Debunking Christianity, is also entertaining and packed with informative and thoughtful posts from himself, Hector Avalos, and others. He definitely takes a more aggressive tone, which does turn some folks off, but I enjoy it.

So it was pretty cool to pop into his site a couple weeks ago and start reading about this guy who deconverted while reading his book and… wait a minute, that’s me!

Loftus had apparently run across the part of my story where I referenced his book. He had actually left a comment for me as well.

But seeing him highlight the story, and the interest it generated among his (much, much larger) audience, reminded me of how small the world has become in the internet age. I think that’s a good thing. There are so many worries about our connected culture and the effect it’s having on human relationships. But most of what I see is the opposite. Rather than seeing and reading from afar, I was able to personally thank one of the individuals responsible for helping me wake up.

And now, through this blog, I am making new friends and acquaintances. We’re encouraging and challenging each other. We’re learning together.

Please, if you haven’t before, visit Loftus’ website. He’s not gotten rich off of these books by any means, and I do believe he still has a day job. Thank him for still making the time to share his knowledge and his journey, and giving the space for others to do so as well.

🙂 I really admire that you thoroughly did your homework before deconverting. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of any ex-Christian websites at the time I was going through my deconversion. I think it would have certainly expedited the process. I also didn’t read any atheist books, such as those from Dawkins and Hitchens. TBH, I was in such a Christian bubble, I didn’t even know they existed.

There’s a saying that reading and studying the Bible is a sure-fire way of making an atheist out of someone. I’d have to say that was true in my case.

Interestingly, I was an exception to the stereotypical Christian who doesn’t read their own book. I had read pretty much all of the bible, multiple times, and knew it better than almost any other thing. I had my rose-colored filter set on HIGH, so that I glossed right over the atrocities and bought the line that it was YHWH using his people as an instrument of judgment on wayward people blah-blah-blah.

I actually still have a book called “The Dawkins Delusion” which is supposed to be a refutation of The God Delusion. I’ve yet to read the latter, but once I get around to it, I’ll plan to read the former, just for kicks, maybe post a review 🙂